Balancing Access and Advantage — The Tension at the Heart of US Education

This post is a paper I presented in Berne at the 2012 meeting of the Swiss Society for Research on Education in Berne, which was then published in a book -- Bildungsungleichheit und Gerechtigkeit: Wissenschaftliche und Gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen (by far the coolest title in my entire CV).  It later appeared as a chapter in my …

Jay Mathews — Why Plans to Raise Educational Standards Will Never Work

This post is a piece by my favorite education writer, Jay Mathews at the Washington Post.  Here's a link to the original. It's his discussion of a new book by Tom Loveless at the Brookings Institution, Between the State and the Schoolhouse: Understanding the Failure of Common Core.  The book is an examination of why …

Review of Cristina Groeger’s Education Trap

This post is a review of Cristina Groeger's new book, The Education Trap, which is eventually going to appear in the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth.    This is the best book about education that I have read in a long time.  I urge you to read it. Limited to 800 words, …

Jill Lepore — How to Write a Paper for This Class

This post is a classic piece of advice that Harvard historian Jill Lepore gives to her students about how to write a paper.  Here's a link to the original. How to Write a Paper for This Class Jill Lepore To write history is to make an argument by telling a story about dead people. You’ll …

Mutual Subversion: A Short History of the Liberal and the Professional in American Higher Education

This post is a piece I published in History of Education Quarterly in 2006.  Here's a link to the original, complete with footnotes.  It's an elaboration on the presidential address I presented at the annual meeting of the History of Education Society in October, 2005. The theme is the complex interaction between the liberal and …

Irina Dumitrescu — How to Write Well

This post is a piece by Irina Dumitrescu on how to write well, which was originally published last fall in Times Literary Supplement.  Here's a link to the original. I earlier posted two pieces (here and here) about the Joe Moran book she reviews.  I also had a post about the five-paragraph essay. Enjoy. How …

David Brooks — The Tragedy of SID

This post is an classic piece by David Brooks from way back in 1996 -- The Tragedy of SID -- which was published in the Weekly Standard; here's a link to the original. SID is an ailment, Status-Income Disequilibrium. The sufferers of this malady have jobs that give them high status but low income. They …

Academic Writing as an Exercise in Arrogance and Humility

This post is a new piece I just wrote, which was published on April 1 in Inside Higher Ed.  Here's a link to the original. An Exercise in Arrogance and Humility To be a good academic writer, you must deploy a judicious mix of two contradictory traits that are a disaster by themselves but together …

The Winning Ways of a Losing Strategy: Educationalizing Social Problems in the US

This post is a paper I published Educational Theory in 2008.  Here's a link to the original. In this essay, I examine the paradox of educationalization in the American context. I argue that, like most modern Western societies, the United States has displayed a strong tendency over the years for educationalizing social problems, even though …